FRAGMENTS from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the world’s oldest biblical ­manuscripts, are being offered for sale after being kept hidden in a Swiss bank vault for almost 70 years.

A California-based antiquities expert says he has already brokered 15 to 20 private deals for the scraps, some no bigger than a postage stamp, for the Palestinian family that found them.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, Santa Barbara-based dealer Lee Biondi revealed: “Most of what I have sold is in the $400,000 to $600,000 (£263,000 to £394,000) range.

“There are many much smaller ­pieces available, some as small as a quarter-of-an-inch square that might be bought for much less, say somewhere between $10,000 to $12,000 (£6,577 to £7,893).”

The sales have piqued the interest of wealthy collectors worldwide and ­enraged the Israeli government which now owns more than 99 per cent of the scrolls, amounting to more than 10,000 pieces, having bought them decades earlier from the Kando family. ­

William Kando, whose late father ­discovered the scrolls in 1947 in caves in the Judean Desert alongside the Dead Sea, insists his family did offer the ­remaining fragments to the Israeli ­authorities but declared: “They could not afford them.”

Sitting in the Jerusalem antiquities store he inherited, Kando said: “If ­anyone is interested, we are ready to sell. These are the most important things in the world.”

The 10,000-plus large and small ­fragments held in Israel represent 900 separate texts. Most are written in ­Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek on animal skin parchment, papyrus and copper.

The famous scrolls were discovered in the cliffs above the Dead Sea

I told Kando many years ago that, as far as I am concerned, he can die with those scrolls

They predate Jesus by about 80 years and are considered the most important biblical manuscripts ever discovered.

Frustratingly for the Israelis, however, only William Kando knows how many fragments were locked away in a ­Geneva bank vault decades ago.

Last week Amir Ganor, head of ­Israel’s Antiquities Authority anti-­looting squad, said: “I told Kando many years ago that, as far as I am concerned, he can die with those scrolls. The scrolls’ only address is the state of Israel.”

The world of Holy Land antiquities is rife with theft, ­deception and politics but neither ­Kando nor his Californian broker are moved by the hostilities their sales have evoked.

Mr Biondi said: “I can understand why the Israeli government would not want to pay further fortunes for fragments when they have 99.99 per cent of the scrolls already. Nobody is doing ­anything wrong here and Mr Kando is perfectly entitled to sell his possessions to ­whoever he wants.”

Mr Biondi said he had “no idea” how many fragments the Kando family ­secreted away. Nor does he know their historic and religious significance.

As a guide, he said that if one piece of about nine by 15 inches that contains the basis of the Book of Genesis were sold, it would fetch upwards of ­£26million.